The project investigates how international ecosystem service payment schemes (specifically for carbon sequestration/storage and biodiversity conservation) can most effectively reduce poverty in low income countries.See www.p4ges.org/index.php.en?menu=0&catid=0 for more details.

Project Overview

There has been a recent explosion of interest in market mechanisms to capture global ecosystem service values. In principle, these should benefit the poor by increasing the value of their resources. However, the effects on poverty are variable and depend on a) the structure and distribution of payments (how and when payments are made, and to whom) and b) how land-use changes driven by the payments influence the supply of locally important ecosystem services and livelihood options to poor people.

This 3-year interdisciplinary project, led by Dr Julia Jones at Bangor University, is funded by the UK’s Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. It focuses on a single ecosystem (tropical forest) in a single low income country (Madagascar) to understand how international ecosystem service payment schemes (specifically for carbon sequestration/storage and biodiversity conservation) can most effectively reduce poverty in low income countries, given bio-physical, economic and political realities.